Bounty
by ProjectAOD
Summary: [Please R&R. Chapter 1 is up][Four bounty hunters take their skills to the limit to stop a terrorist attack on Station Square.][PG-13 for language and violence]


          "Guns,"

          "Check."

          "Radios,"

          "Check."

          "Extra clips-"

          "I think we have everything."

          "Alright…let's blow these fuckers away."

          The night fallen sky above was shrouded with an overcast as two shadows stepped out of an ostentatious, black McLaren F1 vehicle and hurried down an alleyway just outside of Station Square.

          "Testing," a hedgehog said as he inserted a small disk in his ear with an attached mic leading towards his mouth.

          "Gotcha," responded the other- an echidna- as he placed a similar object into his own ear. The two approached a set of old, rickety steps leading up towards a door that was halfway off its hinges. With pistols –two M9 Berettas- in hand, vigilantly they entered the decrepit building. However, no one appeared to be present in the hallway at that time.

          "The directions said to go to the 8th floor, third room on the right."

          They walked to the end of the corridor; their sleek sunglasses reflecting the flickering florescent lights as they slipped into an elevator. The echidna reached a leather biker gloved hand out and pressed the button labeled "8" and stepped backwards; cocking his gun back as it came to a stop. Together they put their ears against the door; distinguishing about how many people were in 'the third door on the right' and what they were discussing.

          "So, do you have the fuckin' money or not!?"

          "I told you we will pay you in down payments."

          "That's bullshit! I want my money right fucking now!"

          The sound of a crash echoed through the room, leaving an uneasy silence afterwards. The hedgehog pulled a compact cell phone from the pocket of his leather trench coat and speed dialed.

          "We got them," he said into the mouth piece.

          "Good work, our men will be right over."

 The hedgehog looked to the echidna as he put his hand on the door knob and twisted.

          "Put your hands up in the air!"

          Three men –one black wolf clad in a tuxedo, the other two in informal apparel- turned their heads towards the entryway as their arms shot into the air.

          "What seems to be the problem, officers?"

          "Where's the drugs, we know they're here."

          "I…I'm afraid you are mistaken-"

          "What's in the suitcase?"

          He pointed his pistol towards a black valise sitting atop of a table in the middle of the three men – who all looked to each other. One reached to the inside of his own coat and pulled out a shiny diminutive object; throwing it at the two as they took shelter behind a nearby wall.

          "Let's kill these fuckers!" one of the drug dealers said, inserting a clip into his H&K USP pistol as his companions did the same.

          "Shit!" the echidna shouted as a bullet ricocheted off the wall and missed him by a hair. The resonance of police sirens sounded just outside the window, it would be a matter of minutes before the officers would come to their aid.

          "Grab the dope and let's get out of here!"

           The man dressed in the tuxedo snatched the case containing the 'goods' and made an attempted dash for the door when it burst open; revealing a dozen or so men in state trooper uniforms and rifles.

          "You're under arrest! Remain where you are!"

          The policemen flooded into the room; seizing the suitcase from his grasp and locking handcuffs onto each of them.     

          "Nick Lanyi, Bounty Hunter," the taupe coloured hedgehog approached one of the officers; holding up the I.D. card in his wallet that showed an embarrassing picture.

          "Knuckles, Bounty Hunter," said the scarlet echidna as he showed his identification card as well, "take these guys away."

          The soldiers led the dealers out of the room and back into their vehicles while four detectives with flashing cameras and evidence bags entered in.

          "Good work," said an older hedgehog with a few straying gray hairs. He handed Nick and Knuckles separate envelopes, "here's your pay. I'm rather impressed you caught these guys, we've been on this case for months."  
          "Heh, all in a days work, Colonel," Nick responded.

          "I know usually I give you two a break after doing a mission, but we currently have another one for you. If you choose to do it, your reward will be doubled."

          "Well, what's the job? Who do we have to track down this time?"

          "This one is unlike any of your other ones; someone is committing federal offenses- hacking government files, phreaking phone lines, et cetera, but mainly cyber crimes. Problem is none of our men can track this bastard down."

          "Neither of us are very good at computers-"  
          "That's why I'd like you to join up with a former bounty hunter. She's been working for me for quite a while now and I have never, ever seen anybody top her computer skills, especially in the hacking department."

          "_She?_You don't see too many girls in this kind of job."

          "You can usually find her at Casino Nights; it's a bar right off the main street. She and her friend Cy play pool there every night, ask the bartender for 'Ashley Syron'. Oh, give her this letter as well."

          The colonel handed Nick an unmarked envelope which held a note and a check written out for a hefty sum of money.

          "We'll contact her," he responded, slipping the letter into his pocket, "Knuckles, let's go."

          The two bounty hunters exited the edifice, holstering their guns securely into their trench coats. Nick took out his keys and pressed a small button as he pointed it towards his McLaren F1, making the driver's and passenger's side doors opened vertically up.

          "Casino Nights…that's just a ways down the street from Whitman's isn't it?"

          Nick turned the key and sped away from the alley; leaving nothing but a trail of dust behind him. Knuckles –who was opening his envelope and smelling the greens- nodded his head and directed him towards the bar. Within no more than a half hour, a vivid hot pink neon sign reading 'Casino Nights' came into their view. He put the car into park as two girls in low cut tube tops and black leather short shorts shot them a wink and a smile.

          "Hello ladies," Nick said slyly as he passed by the girls and walked into the deep crimson glow of the club. It wasn't a busy night there; the pub lost its popularity after a shoot out just a few years prior.

          "Excuse me," Knuckles said as he approached the bar, "do you know if 'Ashley Syron' is here tonight?"

          "Yes, she's right over there," the bartender pointed to a large group of people surrounding a pool table, "her game has been on fire all night."

          The two bounty hunters walked over to the crowd; maneuvering through the labyrinth of people to get to the girl they were seeking out.

          "Ha! Beat ya fair and square!"

          A pure white female hedgehog sporting a pink tank top and tight leather pants grabbed a pile of money that was sitting atop the pool table and stored it away in her pocket, "Any more challengers?"  
          "Ashley, don't you think we should call it a night? You've been playing for six hours now…"

          Another hedgehog -electric green furred with black lighting bolt streaks down his quills-put down his pool cue and handed the girl her leather jacket as together they walked out of the bar; Knuckles and Nick following close behind them.

          "You're Ashley Syron, right?" Nick asked just before she stepped inside of her car- a shimmering, polished silver Aston Martin Vanquish.

          "The one and only. What can I do for ya?" she asked as she let her dark brown hair down from its tail and put the scrunchie around her wrist. Knuckles handed her the letter, just as the colonel directed.

          "It's about time that old fart gave me my money! Hmm…so you guys need a computer hacker for your job, huh? Well, I'm just the girl for the job! What did you say your guys' names were?"

          "I'm Nick, and this is Knuckles."  

          "It's nice to meet ya, Nick and Knuckles. I'll get right onto the case. Me and Shad can track this prick down in a matter of minutes at our loft."

          Ashley put the case containing her pool cue into the trunk before taking a seat behind the wheel, "You guys can tag along and come watch if you'd like."

          Nick and Knuckles headed back to their own automobile and followed the girl. Since it was after all 2:00 in the morning, the streets of the metropolis were vacant rather than teeming with people during the daylight hours. So within a few minutes, both vehicles came to a halt at their destination.

          "This is the place," Ashley announced as they came to gaze upon an eminent apartment building. The four hunters went inside, climbing numerous staircases to get to the loft.

          "So…how long have you guys been in this business?" she asked as they reached what must have been the 12th flight of stairs.

          "Four…maybe five years now."

          At long last, they finally passed the last stairway as Ashley and Cy opened the door to their loft.   

          "Make yourself at home."

          The place was very modern and retro; it consisted of mainly the colours white, black, and small amounts of gray. A stereo atop of a shelf played classic rock songs from artists such as Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix as the two looked around the place. Nick walked through another door which appeared to be a lounge. At the far end of the room was a small bar with many empty martini glasses sitting on the tabletop, as well as a book labeled, "Drink Mixes."

          "This is some place…" Knuckles commented, thinking of the apartment he shared with Nick that had pop tart boxes, beer bottles, and clothes lying randomly around their place. As he took a seat in a black chair shaped like a hand, a ringing phone sounded from the room he had previously been in.

"Hello?" Cy asked into the receiver; "Ashley, it's for you."

"Hey, who's this?" she said as she took the phone; "…hello? Hello, is anyone there?"      

          The sound of a dial tone filled her ear as she put the phone back on the counter. Shrugging her shoulders, she approached a tall bookcase next to a 63" plasma TV and pulled out a small black book. As she did so, the case slid off to the side and revealed a door which she entered.

          "This is where our 'hacking lab' is located."

          Ashley took a seat in front of a flat paneled computer as she put on a headset with an attached microphone.

          "Hmm," Cy said as he looked through a shelf containing many computer disks, "what do you want to use to track him; the traditional Telnet or a program?"

          "Let's Telnet, it shouldn't be too hard."

          Cy nodded his head and sat in front of a computer behind Ashley, putting on his own headset as he turned the monitor on.

          "Let's see…run cmd.exe," she said while a black screen popped up reading:

          Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]  
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:

          telnet [-a][-e escape char][-f log file][-l user][-t term][host  
[port]]  
-a Attempt automatic logon. Same as -l option except uses  
the currently logged on user's name.  
-e Escape character to enter telnet client prompt.  
-f File name for client side logging  
-l Specifies the user name to log in with on the remote system.  
Requires that the remote system support the TELNET ENVIRON  
option.  
-t Specifies terminal type.  
Supported term types are vt100, vt52, ansi and vtnt only.  
host Specifies the hostname or IP address of the remote computer  
to connect to.

port Specifies a port number or service name.

Nick and Knuckles looked intently at the scripts and codes projected onto the screens; not understanding the PHP language that Ashley and Cy knew fluently.

            "What the hell does all of that say!?" Nick asked, thinking that it just looked like gibberish

"It's the commands of Telnet," she responded, "at first it _does _look confusing, but after you've read 12,000 manuals it starts just to look like normal English."

       "Ashley, I've located his IP address," Cy announced a few minutes later as he rolled his chair over to the hedgehog and handed her a piece of paper with a series of number written on it.

       "Good work! Now, the fun begins. We'll hack this guy, and once we find out where he is Nick and Knux can go and arrest this guy's ass-whoa, what the hell?!"

       Ashley put her headset around her neck as she looked apprehensively at her monitor, "What the fuck is going on?!"

       The three huddled over her computer; watching it go haywire as all the windows and programs she had running shut down. The black screen remained, however, it was typing on its own.

"Oh my fucking God, he's hacking _us!_" Ashley shouted

while looking to Cy's monitor, which was doing the same.

"How the hell is he hacking two computers at once!?"

       "How do you know it's him?" Knuckles asked as he continued to watch the computers.

       "The same IP address showed up under Netstat, Jesus Christ! If he gets into our files he can blow all of our identities up to the world!"

       Ashley and Cy's hands were typing a mile a minute as sweat trickled down their brows. If their identities were found out, their job would be quite different; instead of them hunting the outlaws down, the outlaws would be hunting _them _down…to kill them.

       "Fuck, this guy is too fast!" Cy said as he tried hopelessly to defend his system. "He's almost got mine!"

       "This bastard isn't gonna beat us this easily! I'm almost into his server, so if I can hack it and fuck up the scripts we'll both be okay."

       The clock struck 5:00A.M. Ashley and Cy were still fighting the cyber battle even though it seemed doomed to failure. One last click of a key echoed through the room as Ashley slouched back in her chair, exhausted.

       "I shut his server down," she announced, throwing the headphones across the room, "we should be safe for now."

       "Good job," Cy replied as he patted her on the back, "that was one fuck of a hacking session-"

       "I have his profile."

       A piece of paper shot out of the printer and onto the floor, which Nick picked up and studied.

       "Zack Summers, looks like he lives here in San Francisco. Age 35…unmarried...works as a clerk at 7eleven. God, this guy sounds like a real loser."

       "This is one smart bastard we're dealing with, though. We gotta take him out before he reboots his system. Since he lives in this city you and Knuckles can get to him easily while me and Cy give you directions, passwords, anything via earpiece."

       Ashley went over to a nearby cabinet and handed Nick and Knuckles two separate boxes of assorted items.

       "In there should be everything you need; Night vision goggles –Night Owls, Generation 3 might I add- ear pieces, mics, hair spray-"

       "What do we need hair spray for?!"

       "Not a very well known trick, but if you spray it on invisible security lasers you'll be able to see them! Oh, and of course. I've included in there a Desert Eagle .50 A.E."  
                   Nick took out a lengthy firearm from the box; looking it over as the light from the computer screen reflected on its chrome barrel. It was the biggest handgun he had ever seen since the Colt .45 Revolver. The pistol was quite hefty and heavy, but would certainly get the job done. Ashley grabbed an identical weapon from a holster on the inside of her jacket and chambered a round.

       "Let's go."

Please R & R!! Tell me whatcha think


End file.
